Jemma was back. Asia paced her cell nervously, running her hands through her hair (which was in desperate need of a wash, just another reason she wanted to get out of this fucking containment. Soaking in a bath for five hours sounded like literal heaven). How was she going to face her, after what had happened to Trip? She was partly responsible for the death of her best friend's boyfriend. How fucked was that? She continued pacing, breathing deeply, trying to process it all out.
"Hey, can you stop that?" Skye said, tapping on the glass, "Being in here is stressful enough without watching you wear a hole in the floor. You're freaking me out."
Asia rolled her eyes and flopped down onto her cot, looking over at Skye. "You realize you paced for like. Literally the entire first two days we were in here, right?" She teased sarcastically. "Let me have my turn."
"Okay well if you keep doing your turn, this entire building is going to end up shaking," Skye snapped back, before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I'm just. Tense, you know? We haven't seen Jemma since..." she trailed off, biting her lower lip and looking down at her palms.
"Since we got out of the tunnel. Since she found out Trip didn't make it. I know," Asia replied back with a nod, burrowing her chin into the collar of her sweater and letting out a long breath. "Do you think she holds it against us?" She asked quietly, almost scared of what Skye's answer might be.
"Jemma?" Skye asked, "No, no I think she understands this is a part of the job, a risk we face," Skye replied, trying to convince Asia and herself. "But I still think she's going to be heartbroken....and she's going to run the tests on us to get us out of here...."
"Right, the tests," Asia rolled to stare straight up at the ceiling. "Fuck. Well. I'm not really sure how we'll deal with that. Once they pull our blood, I'm assuming our cover is really going to be blown then." She puffed up her cheeks then slowly spurted out the air. "Yea, I don't know how we're going to fix that." The ceiling offered her no answers of comfort in return. It was nothing but a blank slate, staring back at her, leaving her to wonder what her future might hold. She rolled back on her side to face Skye, who was still looking over at her with concern in her eyes. "We'll figure something out. We always do," she tried to offer words of comfort. But honestly, words of comfort are hard to believe when the person speaking them is shaking with nerves.
Skye nodded a quick little nod from where she lay on her own cot, facing one of her best friends. "She'll be here soon, so we'll have to start figuring it out I guess," she whispered.
As if on queue, Jemma entered the room, tapping away at a tablet. Her hair was down, fluttering just at the edge of the shoulders of her flower print button up. Asia recognized it instantly. It was a shirt Trip had gotten her for Christmas the last year. A pang of sadness hit Asia's heart and she felt the air around her drop ever so slightly. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the cold away. She couldn't lose it, not now. With Jemma, she brought along a lab agent dressed in an all white hazmat suit, similar to the ones the wore down in the tunnels. She looked up from her tablet at her two friends and smiled. "Skye, Asia, I'm so happy to see you both," she said, earnestly. "Now, let's get you out of there." She nodded at the lab worker. "She's just going to pop in and run some tests, collect some blood. After that, we'll get the results run. I just want to make sure that whatever infected Raina hasn't done the same to the two of you." She turned to one of the computers in the Lab and began typing away. Skye and Asia met glances out of the corners of their eyes.
Asia moved back to a corner in her room as the suit covered individual entered her space through the sliding glass doors. Taking deep breaths, after the chamber was sealed, Asia went and sat on her cot, holding out her arm so her blood could be extracted. The lab agent smiled a nervous smile at her before taking out a needle and sticking it into Asia's arm. Not wanting to watch, Asia focused out on Jemma. "So, what has you so...shaken up?" She called out quietly. "You seem very on edge today. Like somethings got your nerves going." She tilted her head to the side so she could see Jemma better around the giant suit in her containment chamber.
"Oh, it's nothing," Jemma shook her head, pursing her lips. "Actually, it's better you know now, so you don't find out from someone else....I know I mentioned Raina when I came in, but I wanted to address what happened to her." She paused while the Lab agent moved to Skye's quarantine chamber and began to take her blood. "You wouldn't have even recognized her..." Jemma trailed off, with a shake of her head. "That's why we have to make sure neither of you were affected in any way." She said her words forcefully, and Asia felt them down to her core. For the first time in her life, she was...scared? Of Jemma Simmons. She swallowed, hard, but didn't speak.
"I'll take these to be analyzed right away," the agent in the suit said with a nod and a quick smile, walking briskly out of the Lab and leaving the three women to their conversation.
"I'm glad neither of you were affected," Jemma continued on. "It was...honestly, quite horrific," she explained. "Raina was...completely different. And not just on the outside. Here, let me show you," she typed away at a keyboard, bringing up a large image of molecular data for them to see. There were two different strands of DNA on the screen, one blue and normal, and the other, dotted with red on places which had changed. "It's quite interesting, scientifically speaking. Her DNA completely rearranged itself. But not only that, it now contains extra macromolecules. I can't even begin to imagine how." The scientist shook her head, sighing.
"I mean...that's pretty amazing," Skye began nonchalantly, glancing over at Asia. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her black sweatpants as she shuffled closer to the glass to look at the screen.
Jemma's brow furrowed with concern. "No, it's not. It's horrific. We need to make sure the two of you weren't infected in any way."
Asia looked out at Jemma, a perplexed look on her face. "I mean...what would be the worst that could happen?" She asked. Honestly, whatever it was, it had isolated to those inside the chamber. Everything was fine, as long as Skye and Asia kept their cards close.
Jemma looked at her friends as if the two of them really were crazy. "An epidemic!" She exclaimed, setting her tablet down hard on the desk and crossing her arms over her chest, looking between her two friends.
"Wow, um, that's a tad bit harsh, don't you think?" Skye said, laughing lightly, trying to ease the mood. She felt like she and Asia were on the wrong end of a witch hunt.
"I don't think so. But perhaps that's because I am so greatly responsible," when both of the women in containment open their mouths to object, Jemma held up one finger, silencing them. "I spent so much time trying to understand unearthly powers, trying to harness them, control them. I should have been working to terminate them. If I had, perhaps we could have stopped this long ago."
"Jemma, SHIELD helps powered individuals all the time," Asia objected. "That's the world we live in now. Where would we be without some of the powered heroes on this planet?"
"Better off than we are now. This...this... infestation. It's a plague that only ends in death," Jemma protested, tears welling at the corners of her eyes as she looked at her two friends. "Think of all the death we've seen of powered individuals. Comparatively, the numbers are exponential."
"You're talking crazy," Skye said quietly, crossing her arms over her chest, hugging herself tightly.
"Hell, half of the Avengers have powers. Even Nat is on the index! Wha-" Asia began but Jemma raised her voice, cutting her off.
"The Avengers wouldn't have even been necessary if we hadn't been messing with Alien horrors! We pushed our luck and we have only been punished for it," Jemma protested her point, her point of eliminating any powered people.
"That's...no, there has to be another wa-" Skye began, but again Jemma cut her off.
"Trip was in fragments!" She shouted, her words coming out as a sob, as she buried her face in her palms for a moment, hiding the tears. After taking a few deep breaths, she looked back up, wiping her stray tears away. "It ends with him. I need to protect the people I care about... I....I couldn't save him, but that doesn't mean I can't save others."
The two imprisoned agents could do nothing but nod, wishing they could hug their friend, take away a little bit of her heartache. "I need..." Jemma began, her words coming out shaky. "I need to go make sure those samples are being processed. I'll be back soon enough to get you out of there." She turned and spun on her heel, hands wiping fiercely at her tears once more.
Asia sighed and flopped down on her cot, turning on her side to look at Skye. "Well, if I didn't feel like the worlds worst person, I definitely do now." She sniffed, burrowing deeper into her chuncky turtleneck.
"You're tied for first in that one," Skye replied, leaning against her desk. "So what now?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and rubbing forlornly at her arm where the blood was drawn.
Asia didn't know what to say. There was nothing they could do but wait.
————————————————————————————————————————
Asia woke later when she heard footsteps outside of her quarantine area. Glancing at the wall clock outside, it read 23:04. Who was up so late? Suddenly, Leo came into view, standing in front of the door to her chamber. A smile instantly slipped onto her face.
She slipped off her bed and padded over to the glass, giving him a small wave. He looked...tired, and concerned. And he didn't smile back. Immediately, worry hit her like a truck. "Hey, Leo," she greeted, rubbing her upper arm nervously. "Is everything alright?"
The scientist pulled at the long sleeves of his grey sweater, biting her his lower lip. He shuffled around a bit, before he looked up at her. "I'm not sure, Asia, why don't you tell me?" He stared her in the eyes and in that instant, she knew that he knew. He knew all of it, about her, about Skye. About their devlish changes that they couldn't quite control.
Her mouth fell open ever so slightly, closed, opened a bit once more, as she tried to figure out what to say. "I...what do you mean?" She stammered. In the glass bubble beside her, Skye began to stir, rubbing her eyes and looking over at Asia, eyes widening when she saw Leo standing in front of the glass.
Leo sighed, shifting something he held in his hand. It was small, black destroyed. "I wasn't sure...wasn't sure exactly what I was seeing at first. I've, um been watching your live feed sometimes. Just, you know, to make sure you're safe," he started to say, unable to meet her eyes at first. He let out a low breath again and looked up at her. "And I know there's nothing wrong with the quarantine ventilation system. Our tech isn't causing things to get so cold." He looked at Skye now, who was standing up, mouth open. "But I wasn't really completely sure until I put your watch back together, Skye."
She stared at him, then looked at Asia, then back. Her breath was coming quickly and Asia could see she was starting to panic.
"No, you've got it wrong," Asia tried to say. "It's all me. She doesn't know what you're talking about, you're scaring her." She tried to get his eyes back on her, to protect her friend, but he was too busy study Skye as she began to lose control.
"I don't think I've got anything wrong, for once," he said, eyes flickering up to Asia. "Like I said, I've been watching your feed. Every single night, when you're having night terrors, the room fills with ice. The temperature drops below 10 Celsius. And Skye, your watch. I was able to gather the information it was reading during the Temple collapse. Your heart rate was over 300 BPM."
"No, no that's not," Slye tried to protest, hands clenching and unclenching. Asia knew what was coming next and tried desperately to try and get her friend's attention. "That's...that's very fast," Skye said, breathing quickly as if she were having an anxiety attack.
"No..." Leo shook his head, eyes flirting back and forth between the two of them. "That's inhuman."